Artificial tooth.



'ED STATES WILLIAM K. SLATER, OF KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE.

ARTIFICIAL TooTI-I.

SPECIFICATION forming part ofLetters Patent No. 669,963, dated March 12, 1901.

Application filed February 19, 1900. Serial No. 5 ,734. (No model.)

To Ir/ZZ whom, t may concern:

Be it known that LWILLIAM K. SLATER, of Knoxville, in the county of Knox and State of Tennessee, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Artificial Teeth, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is an improvement in artificial teeth, and particularly in the means of attaching such teeth to a plate of rubber, celluloid, or other suitable material.

The invention consists in certain details of construction and arrangement of the parts, which I shall hereinafter specilically describe and claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification,

' in which like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views in which they occur.

Figure lis a perspective view of a tooth having a keeper in the form ot a staple. Fig. 2 is a vertical section thereof. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the same with the retainingwire attached. Fig. 4 is a vertical section of a tooth in which the staple is inverted. Fig. 5 is a similar view with the ends of the staple bent. Fig. 6 is a vertical section of a tooth in which the keeper is in the form of two pins. Fig. 7 is a similar view with the ends of the pins bent; and Fig. 8 is a plan view of a tooth, illustrating the retaining-wire held in place by keepers of the forms shown in Figs. 4c to '7, inclusive.

Referring to the drawings, A designates an artificial tooth of porcelain or the like whose palatal surface a and labial surface a are shaped like natural teeth and whose gum end a2 is hollowed out between the labial and palatal surfaces to form a concavity adapted to fIt snugly over the alveolar ridge. Baked into the teeth A, as shown in Fig. 2, is a platinum keeper in the form of a staple B, whose ends b are embedded in the tooth and whose loop b' extends slightly above the gum end of the same and projects in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the tooth. Inserted through the loop b is a German-silver or other suitable retaining-wire C, which is embedded in the base or plate and the tooth thereby secured in place.

Instead of embedding the ends of the platinum staple in the tooth when it is baked I may, as shown in Fig. fl, bake the tooth D with the loop cof a staple E embedded therein, with its points or ends c projecting above the hollowed-out gum end d, or, if desired, as shown in Fig. G, the keeper may be in the I form of two pins F, embedded in the tooth G, the ends or points fof the pins projecting above the hollowed-out gum end g. In either of these instances illustrated in Figs. 4 and 6 the retaining-wire C is secured in place by bending the projecting ends e and f tightly around it to practically form loops, as illustrated in Figs. 5, 7, and 8, the wire'being then embedded in the plate.

It is obvious that any desired number of teeth made according to the principles of my invention may be attached to the denture as the teeth are baked with the platinum keepers embedded therein, and the retaining-wire is afterward attached to them by inserting it through the loops or by bending the projecting ends of the keepers around it.

It will be seen that my invention comprehends the formation of artificial teeth in which are baked keepers which project above the gum ends of the teeth in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the tooth and are arranged, by means of loops or bent ends, for secure attachment to a retaining-wire, the latter being then secured to the plate. These keepers are located in those portions of the teeth where there is the greatest body of porcelain, whereby they do not unnecessarily weaken the teeth. Their attaching portions are located in the gum ends of the teeth, thus permitting the latter to be shaped like natural teeth, and depend almost entirely upon the wire for theirattachment to the plate, so that possibility of the breakage of the plate is almost entirely precluded, as the wire strengthens the same.

My invention can be carried out with teeth known as gum teeth, both single and in sections, as well as with plain teeth.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. An artificial tooth having a keeper embedded therein, said keeper being formed with a portion projecting out of the gum end of the tooth in the direction of the longitudinal axis, and a retaining-wire around which IOO said projecting portion is arranged to extend, I of the tooth and adapted to be embedded in lo the said Wire being adapted to be embedded the plate substantially as described.

in a base, as and for the purpose set forth. l In testimony whereof I have signed my 2. An artieial tooth having an attachment name to this specification in the presence of 5 for the plate consisting of an eye or loop rigtwo subscribing Witnesses.

idly embedded in the tooth and projecting i WILLIAM K. SLATER. out of its gum end in the direction of its 1on- Witnesses: gitudinal axis, and a transverse anchorage- E. W. KIRBY,

pin passing through said eye or loop outside l E. L. BEETS. 

